Latest spotlights

Campaign group ‘Action on Sugar’ call for ban on energy drinks for children under 16

The UK campaign and research group Action on Sugar are calling for strict limits on added sugars as one of the energy drinks they surveyed had up to 10 teaspoons of sugar per 250ml. Teenagers are consuming 50% more sugar than the maximum recommended amount and the biggest contribution comes from sugary drinks. This overconsumption of sugar is increasing their risk of developing obesity and type 2 diabetes, both of which may have can contribute to lifelong implications on health. Both the WHO and government advisers in England have recently proposed a cut in their recommendations for daily sugar consumption. The proposed new target of 5% of energy intake from free sugars amounts to about 25g for women (five to six teaspoons) and 35g (seven to eight teaspoons) for men, based on the average diet.

WHO launches tool to help countries reduce marketing of unhealthy foods to children

Marketing of foods high in energy, fats, sugars or salt has a documented harmful impact on children: it promotes the development of unhealthy food preferences and diets, and childhood obesity. Despite this, across the WHO European Region, children are still regularly exposed to marketing that promotes these unhealthy foods and drinks. Progress has been made in some countries, but government action to restrict such marketing remains less than optimal. One of the reasons for this is the challenge of identifying foods whose marketing should be restricted. The WHO Regional Office for Europe has met this challenge by developing a nutrient profile model for countries to adapt and use to classify foods according to their nutritional composition. Policy-makers will be able to use this tool to determine whether a food product may not be marketed to children.

The Lancet publishes Series on obesity exploring the negative influence of today’s food environments

Executive Summary: ‘Today’s food environments exploit people’s biological, psychological, social, and economic vulnerabilities, making it easier for them to eat unhealthy foods. This reinforces preferences and demands for foods of poor nutritional quality, furthering the unhealthy food environments. Regulatory actions from governments and increased efforts from industry and civil society will be necessary to break these vicious cycles’.

New report from Safefood reveals consumers regard portion sizes as being relevant only to those dieting

The latest Safefood report ‘Consumer understanding of food portion size’ also reveals that consumers regard portion sizes as being more important to women and not an issue for men or younger adults. The researchers from the University of Ulster found that using practical, everyday items like measuring cups and different sized spoons were seen by consumers as being helpful in managing their portion sizes. However, eating out or eating with friends presented a challenge in trying to control portion size with one in three struggling to do so. Findings also show products marketed as ‘low fat’ or ‘reduced fat’ may actually be contributing to weight gain with people over consuming these products as a result.

New research reveals big gap in physical health between rich and poor young people in Ireland

The research was led by Prof Frank Elgar of McGill University in Canada, and published in the Lancet. It looked at socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health from 2002–2010 in 34 countries that were participating in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. Findings revealed that Ireland is relatively unequal in terms of inequalities in body mass, physical activity and life satisfaction between the most and least affluent youths. However, young Irish people from poor backgrounds were found to be at little or no disadvantage to their wealthier peers regarding the area of mental health. The researchers concluded that ‘widening gaps in adolescent health could predict future inequalities in adult health and need urgent policy action’.

PHE Obesity Knowledge and Intelligence team has produced a new slide set ‘Making the case for tackling obesity - why invest?’

This slide set identifies why it is important for local authorities and others to invest in tackling obesity. It illustrates facts and figures about obesity including costs to the individual, society and the wider economy. It outlines the benefits of investing to tackle obesity and potential routes to action. An accompanying reference sheet is included.

The Belfast Public Bike Share Scheme which begins this Spring will initially include 300 public bikes, and up to 30 bike docking stations in the city centre. The accredited training provided by Sustrans aims to equip new or returning cyclists with the confidence and skills to hop on the new bikes as part of their daily commute or travel between destinations within the city and is open to anyone aged 14 years and older. For further statistics on cycling and active travel in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, check out the Health behaviours and environments theme on the Community Profiles Tool on The Health Well.

An employment tribunal in Northern Ireland has ruled that obese workers can be eligible for disability rights

In the first ruling of its kind in Northern Ireland, the claimant said he had been discriminated against because of his weight and had been had been subjected to harassment by several members of staff for more than four years. The European Court of Justice recently ruled that that while obesity in itself was not a disability, if a person had a long-term impairment because of their obesity, then they would be protected by disability legislation. The claimant was found to suffer from obesity-related conditions including gout, sleep apnoea and used crutches to walk occasionally and his morbidly obese condition could therefore be classed as a disability. The tribunal found the claimant had suffered "sustained harassment and bullying" and said it was satisfied that he had been harassed because of his disability.

The Public Health Annual Scientific Conference takes place on Wednesday 10th June 2015 at Riddel Hall, Belfast. The theme of the Conference will be 'Making Life Better – Improving health and care for adults'. It will focus on how public health innovations, research and practice are meeting the needs of our adult population between the ages of 18-64 years.

In order to ensure a broad spectrum of content for the Conference, presenters are invited to consider five of the themes within the new Public Health Strategy, Making Life Better as they relate to all aspects of health and care for adults. The five relevant themes are:

Equipped throughout life

Empowering healthy living

Creating the conditions

Empowering communities

Developing collaboration

Presenters are invited to submit an abstract describing a current or recently completed evidence-based public health initiative/intervention/innovation and/or high quality research study in Northern Ireland relevant to the conference theme. Please note the closing date for submission of abstracts has been extended to 16.00 on Wednesday 11th March 2015.

This month’s newsletter contains an update on the Northern Ireland strategic framework on obesity and overweight ‘A Fitter Future for All 2012-2022, outlining some of the findings of the two year progress report published in December 2014. This showed that good progress has been made however there has yet to be significant statistical change in the levels of overweight and obesity. The Obesity Prevention Steering Group is currently reviewing and updating the existing outcomes within the framework to take forward action from 2015-2019 and it is expected that these will be published online in the spring of 2015. The newsletter also contains details of some upcoming obesity related events, and some latest reports and research articles.